Monster Slayers is a rogue-like deck building game released on the 24th of March on Steam. It’s a game that I want to say that I had a good time with but ultimately it left me more bored and annoyed more than anything.

Story

There is not much story in this game, actually there is barely any story, actually there’s none at all or at least if there is I sure as hell didn’t pick up on it. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though as having a bare bones story can leave you to focus more on the game play but I feel like that this game could REALLY benefit from having an engaging story as nothing else in this game seemed to keep my attention. You do pick up small bits of lore here and there but that’s really about it.

Gameplay

Gameplay is, in my opinion, extremely boring. It’s the only part of the game to look forward to but for me it still falls flat on its face. Maybe I’m being too harsh but I seriously felt so bored throughout my time with the game. You choose from a variety of classes and build decks which you use to fight  random monsters. You get loot from these monsters that gets carried over after you die and you can either use it or sell it later on. To think that people would consider this as fun is beyond me. It feels so bland and boring. I at least thought that there would be some depth in the deck building aspect as you when you get better cards you can customize your deck to suit those cards.

Now you have to keep a balance between healing cards, support cards, and attack cards as all of them take up either AP (Ability Points) or MP (Magic Points) you don’t want to have cards that have huge requirements as you could be kneecapping yourself and limiting your turns. But besides that there really isn’t much depth at all, You die, get loot, get more XP and then rinse and repeat until you beat the game. I’m pretty sure this game was made with it being addictive in mind, but it just doesn’t have that level of involvement other great rogue-likes have like Rogue Legacy and The Binding of Isaac.

Presentation

Presentation is where I think the game is at its weakest. Seriously, this game looks like a flash game on Newgrounds. It is so cartoon like, which certainly isn’t a bad thing but when the game looks like some bootleg game you can find on a mobile app store then there’s certainly going to be some red flags. One of the best aspects about the game is it’s music. I certainly did find myself enjoying the music more than I thought I would. I certainly do not think that it’s groundbreaking and to be honest I’ve been kinda spoiled with amazing soundtracks this year cause of NieR and Persona but I digress, it isn’t a very memorable soundtrack but in the moment you will find yourself grooving to it every once in a while.

Performance

There really isn’t much to say about the performance of this game. It runs smoothly with no problem at all, I mean come on, it looks like it could be a mobile game. I played it on my laptop with and I barely know anything about graphics cards and such but if it’ll help I’ll just tell you that I use a Nvidia Geforce 940M, so maybe that’ll put into perspective what the game runs like.

Verdict

In the end I can only say I had a boring time, that’s right, boring. The game by no means is bad. It can be quite good for some people but clearly I wasn’t impressed by it at all, everything from the gameplay to the art style just rubbed me the wrong way and just left me bored. If this game was for some mobile device or some kind of portable console I could maybe forgive a lot of the things. But as a game that’s on Steam where there is an absolutely countless amount of amazing games out I just can’t see this game working. And for the price of $8.99 you could buy something that has a lot more polish and care but into it. Monster Slayers for me at least is lifeless and dull with only a few redeeming qualities that I frankly, can’t even accept but I know other people could.

I give Monster Slayers a 4/10